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The Ecology Center recently announced its popular outdoor dinner series has returned for this spring season.
The San Juan Capistrano farm and community hub hosts nighttime gatherings where people can enjoy farm-to-table meals cooked up by visiting chefs. The dinners will be held every Friday through May.
“As one of the country’s only regenerative organic certified farms, we aim to create a partnership between food, our farm and the community,” Ecology Center Founder and Executive Director Evan Marks said. “We allow the culinary artists that we collaborate with to go back to the source. They get to connect with beautiful fresh, local and seasonal ingredients, finding inspiration and discovering the rewards of building a relationship with the land.”
Guests will be seated at tables during the event, which gives them a chance to meet new people. The dinners also include educational talks about and tours of The Ecology Center. Happy hour is also open before visitors dine.
Each specially prepared dinner uses fresh greens, land-grown corn and squash, and farm-harvested fruit and berries, a news release said.
“We allow the chef to connect with the land in a way that they typically don’t get to do. In a traditional restaurant setting, they usually have their produce supplied, instead of picking it directly themselves. A farmers market just can’t compare,” Marks said. “The closer the relationship that you can have with how your ingredients were sourced, the more in-tune you then become with the produce and products that you can create with.”
Dinners cost $160 per person and are from 6-10 p.m. Visit theecologycenter.org for tickets and more information.
